1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method of assembling a wiring harness having a flat circuit body, such as a FPC (Flexible Printed Circuit) and a FFC (Flexible Flat Cable), and the wiring harness and a connector to be connected with the flat circuit body.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various electronic apparatuses are installed in a car as a vehicle. In the car, a wiring harness is wired for transmitting electric power and control signals. The wiring harness includes a FCC as the flat circuit body and a connector.
The flat circuit body has a conductor with a rectangular cross-section and a film-shape insulator for covering the conductor. A plurality of conductors is arranged in the flat circuit body. Each conductor extends linearly. The plurality of conductors is arranged in parallel to each other. The insulator insulates the conductors to each other.
The connector has a connector housings and terminals. The terminal is formed by bending a conductive sheet metal. The terminal integrally includes an electric contact portion to be in contact with a mating terminal and a wire connecting portion to be joined with the conductor of the FFC. The wire connecting portion has a base plate and a plurality of claws standing from the base plate. The claws pierce the conductor and the insulator of the FFC piled on the base plate, and are bent toward the base plate, so that the wire connecting portion is connected with the conductor of the FFC.
The connector housing made of insulating synthetic resin is formed into a flat rectangular parallelepiped. The connector housing includes a plurality of terminal receiving sections for receiving terminals respectively.
The wiring harness is assembled as following steps. Each terminal is separated one by one from a plurality of terminals connected in a chain shape. The terminal is connected with the FFC. The terminals connected with the FFC are inserted into the terminal receiving sections of the connector housing. Thus, the wiring harness is assembled.